• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.385-390
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• 2021

This study aims to provide primary data for R&D on rollator-walking frame through researching the usability test of the rollator-walking frame and the effect of rollator-walking frames on the lives of senior citizens. This study surveyed 60 senior citizens living in Sungnam City in South Korea. As the result of the usability test, we can find users' dissatisfaction with the folding, weight, shape of backrest and material of chair. The survey shows that the frequency of outdoor activity is mostly increased by the convenience of product. However, the inconvenience while using facilities, such as elevators or public transportations, gave a significant impact on the decrease in going out experiences. Therefore, for better outside lifestyle of senior citizens, it is important to improve the function of the product, however, we need to make improvement of urban infrastructure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
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• 2003.09b
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• pp.1-4
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• 2003

인간의 작업을 보조 혹은 대신하기 위해서 인간과 흡사한 이족보행로봇에 대한 연구가 많이 진행되고 있다. 이족보행로봇이 인간을 대신해서 어떤 작업을 하기 위해서는 작업공간에서의 자유로운 이동과 장애물 대처능력은 반드시 필요한 기능이다. 본 논문에서는 안정된 정적보행 및 장애물을 지능적으로 대처하는 이족보행로봇의 보행알고리즘을 제안하였다. 먼저 장애물 대처가능한 이족보행로봇의 기구 설계 및 제어기 구현에 대하여 설명하고, 인간의 보행 분석 결과를 바탕으로 안정된 정적보행 알고리즘을 제안하였다. 또한 좌우 회전 및 옆걸음을 통한 장애물 회피 알고리즘, 발에 부착된 적외선센서로 장애물을 인식하여 장애물을 넘어가는 보행 알고리즘을 제안하였다. 제안한 보행알고리즘은 이족보행로봇을 제작하여 다양한 작업환경에서 실험으로 성능을 검증하였다.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.161-168
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• 2020

This study is designed to develop a walker to assist the elderly in safe, independent walking. To this end, problems were identified through analysis of the walker for the elderly and user observations were used to identify problems and needs. The product analysis showed that most elderly walkers tend to prioritize their functions. In addition, user observations showed that most users had positive perceptions about the function, but that structural aspects, such as operation methods and stability, had negative consequences. A total of five design guidelines were derived based on the problems and needs derived. The design guidelines were designed to focus on improving structural problems rather than functional parts, and to orientate safety over functional priorities. Five design guidelines derived from this study could be used as basic data for the manufacture of walkers that reflect the views and needs of the elderly in the future in the manufacture and design of walkers for the elderly.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.55-62
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• 2013

The exoskeleton robot to assist walking of hemiplegia patients or disabled persons has been studied in this paper. The exoskeleton robot with degrees of freedom of 2 axis has been developed and tested for joint motion. The obtained EMG signal from normal person was analyzed and the control signal was extracted from it for convenient and automotive performance of assistance robot to help hemiplegia patient walks as normal person does. the purpose of using FES(Functional Electrical Stimulation) for hemiplegia patient's walk is to restore damaged body function by this, but this could give fatal electrical shock to patients by wrong use or cause quick fatigue in muscle by continuous stimulation. The convenient movement of hemiplegia patients with minimum muscle fatigue was looked possibly by operation of assistance robot exoskeleton using control signal. and the walking assistance exoskeleton robot seemed works more efficiently than using FES stimulator. The experiment in this study was performed based on usual motion in our life like walking, standing-up, sitting-down, and particularly feedback control system using Piezo sensor along with button switch was applied for smooth swing motion in walking. The experiment also shows that hemiplegia patients can move conveniently by using electromyogram signal of healthy leg for the operation signal of assistance robot system attached at damaged symmetrical leg.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.261-268
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• 2013

In this paper, we propose the algorithm that improves the linearity of the walking assistant robot on lateral slopes. The walking assistant robot goes out of the course due to the rotational moment which is caused by the weight of the robot and the slope. To compensate this, we give the weight to each driving axle after comparing the real rotational angular velocity with the target rotational angular velocity which is entered by an user. The results of applying the algorithm to the real walking assistant robot show that the yaw axis deviation of the robot without the algorithm diverges, but the yaw axis deviation of the robot with the algorithm lies within 20cm, which can be recognized as stable. In addition, the changing rate of the course deviation is stabilized and shows no more course deviation, after moving 300cm.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.1147-1148
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• 2012

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.124-129
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• 2013

Hexapod walking robots are superior to biped or quadruped ones in terms of walking stability. Therefore hexapod robots have the advantage in performing intelligent tasks based on walking stability. In this paper, we propose a hexapod robot that has one fore leg, one hind leg, two left legs, and two right legs and can perform various intelligent tasks. We build the robot by using 26 motors and implement a controller which consists of a host PC, a DSP main controller, an AVR auxiliary controller, and smart phone/pad. We show by several experiments that the implemented robot can perform various intelligent tasks such as uneven surface walking, tracking and kicking a ball, remote control and 3D monitoring by using data obtained from stereo camera, infrared sensors, ultra sound sensors, and contact sensors.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.279-289
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• 2011

The latest hardware and software techniques are combined to give safe walking guidance and convenient service of realtime walking assistance system for visually impaired person. This system consists of obstacle detection and perception, place recognition, and sign recognition for pedestrian can safely walking to arrive at their destination. In this paper, we exploit the sign object detection system in subway station for sign recognition that one of the important factors of walking assistance system. This paper suggest the adaptive feature map that can be robustly extract the sign object region from complexed environment with light and noise. And recognize a sign using fast zernike moment features which is invariant under translation, rotation and scale of object during walking. We considered three types of signs as arrow, restroom, and exit number and perform the training and recognizing steps through adaboost classifier. The experimental results prove that our method can be suitable and stable for real-time system through yields on the average 87.16% stable detection rate and 20 frame/sec of operation time for three types of signs in 5000 images of sign database.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.41 no.8
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• pp.771-782
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• 2017

This paper describes the development of a wearable robot to assist ankle power for the elderly. Previously developed wearable robots have generally used motors and gears to assist muscle power during walking. However, the combination of motor and reduction gear is heavy and has limitations on the simultaneous control of stiffness and torque due to the friction of the gear reducer unlike human muscles. Therefore, in this study, Mckibben pneumatic muscle, which is lighter, safer, and more powerful than an electric motor with gear, was used to assist ankle joint. Antagonistic actuation using a pair of pneumatic muscles assisted the power of the soleus muscles and tibialis anterior muscles used for the pitching motion of the ankle joint, and the model parameters of the antagonistic actuator were experimentally derived using a muscle test platform. To recognize the wearer's walking intention, foot load and ankle torque were calculated by measuring the pressure and the center of pressure of the foot using force and linear displacement sensors, and the stiffness and the torque of the pneumatic muscle joint were then controlled by the calculated ankle torque and foot load. Finally, the performance of the developed ankle power assistive robot was experimentally verified by measuring EMG signals during walking experiments on a treadmill.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.945-946
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• 2009